Fission/Fusion
This page was done by Yuki, Josh, Peter and Thomas 'Fission' Essentially, fission is a process in which the nucleus of an atom is split apart into smaller parts. This process occurs as the nucleus of the atom is bombarded with neutrons causing its Nuclear Force to weaken and the atom to become unstable. How it is used in Energy? Nuclear fission is a chain reaction where other neutrons bombard uranium atoms causing uranium nuclei to split, as a result, it forms a fissure and releases enormous amounts of energy. What is a Chain Reaction? A Chain reaction is a series of events in which oen event causes or influences the next. Within Physics, it is used to describe the process in which a neutron collides with a nucleus causing Fission to occur, then from that reaction neutrons are given off and cause another similiar reaction. This can occur thousands of times where one reaction causes all. Used in Energy Generation This process benefits the environment because nuclear fission emits a very little amount greenhouse gases and provides massive amounts of energy available to use for the generation electricity. Additionally, this process is cost efficient as it takes less energy to extract uranium then it is to use the amount of energy produced. However, uranium is non-renewable and will run out in the long term, and nuclear fission produces wastes that remain radioactive for thousands of years. All methods for storing radioactive wastes have failed after a short period of time and any accidents have huge consequences, for example, the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986. Fusion What is Nuclear Fusion? Nuclear Fusion is the combination of several nuclei to for an atomic reaction, when the atomic reaction is formed it releases large amounts of energy due to the strong nuclear force which is manifested as high temperatures contained inside the reactants. How does the Nuclear fusion work? Well, nuclear fusion is processed from fusing two or more atoms(nuceli) into a larger atom. if they are fused together they will form energy because the mass of the fusion will be less than the sum of the masses as an individual nuclei. Differences and Comparisons Fission and Fusion are really opposites; Fission is the splitting of an atom into smaller parts while Fusion is the combination of atoms. 'Comparisons ' Natural occurence of the process: *Fission normally doesn't occur in nature *Fusion occurs in stars e.g. sun Byproducts: *Fission produces many radioactive particles *Fusion produce few radioactive particles Conditions: *Fission requires the critical mass of a substance and high-speed neutrons *Fusion requires a high density and high temperature environment Energy released: *Fission releases energy that is a million times greater than the energy released from chemical reactions *Fusion releases energy that is three to four times greater than fission Energy requirements *Fission reactions take little energy to split two atoms *Fusion requires extremely high energy Energy production *Fission is used in nuclear powerplants *Fussion is an experimental technology for producing power Fuel *Fission in nuclear power plants use uranium as the primary fuel *Fusion in experimental fusion power plants use hydrogen isotopes as the primary fuel Category:Fission Category:Fusion